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For years, Denise Scott and her three daughters thought they had certainty about their loved one's death on September 11, 2001.

They believed Randy Scott -- Denise's husband and father to Jessica, Rebecca and Alexandra -- died instantly when the second hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 175, hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Randy Scott worked for Euro Brokers Inc. on the 84th floor, very close to the plane's point of impact. The family took some comfort believing that he might not have suffered.

But a handwritten note with just five words and two numbers on it has changed everything for the Scott family.

The note reads, "84th floor west office 12 people trapped."

Photos: 9/11 victims remembered 26 photos

Photos: 9/11 victims remembered26 photos

9/11 victims remembered – The "Tribute in Light" marks where the World Trade Center buildings stood to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on Tuesday, September 11. The 2001 attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people after hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

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9/11 victims remembered – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, and President Barack Obama stand during a memorial service at the Pentagon in Washington. Obama attended the memorial service, near where American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks.

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9/11 victims remembered – A flag is held over the reflection pool during remembrance ceremonies on Tuesday.

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9/11 victims remembered – The firefighters of New York City's Engine 33-Ladder 9 observe a moment of silence on Tuesday. The company lost 10 firefighters in the 9/11 attacks.

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9/11 victims remembered – Khudeza Begum etches the name of her slain nephew from the memorial of the 9/11 attacks.

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9/11 victims remembered – A woman cries as she stands over the reflecting pool at the World Trade Center site on Tuesday.

9/11 victims remembered – U.S. military platoons operating out of Lindsey-Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan stand in formation Tuesday during a brief ceremony.

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9/11 victims remembered – Scott Willens, who joined the U.S. Army three days after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, pauses at the South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial on Tuesday.

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9-11 memorial 16 – People pause near the World Trade Center site on Tuesday during a memorial to the victims.

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9-11 memorial 13 – New Yorkers pause near the World Trade Center site on Tuesday.

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9-11 memorial 14 – An honor guard carries an American flag Tuesday near the South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial.

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9-11 memorial 15 – David Peters displays his jacket depicting the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center site.

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9/11 victims remembered – President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama observe a moment of silence with White House staff on Monday.

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9/11 victims remembered – A New York City police officer salutes a flag hanging from One World Trade on Monday.

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9/11 victims remembered – A flag sits in a name on the 9/11 Memorial on Monday.

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9/11 victims remembered – New York City's "Tribute In Light," a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, shines from One World Trade into the sky over Manhattan on Monday, September 10, as they are tested for ceremonies marking the 11th anniversary.

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9/11 victims remembered – Pictures of loved ones killed in the attacks are displayed at a preview of the National September 11 Memorial Museum's memorial exhibition on Monday in New York.

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9/11 victims remembered – Soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force pray during a memorial ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, September 11.

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9/11 victims remembered – Flowers are left Monday at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, prior to ceremonies commemorating the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

"He actually literally broke a window, probably with a desk," Ernst said. "That's how they found that it was his note; his bloody thumbprint was on the corner of the letter."

According to Ernst and accounts the family gave to WTIC and the Stamford, Connecticut, Advocate newspaper, the note was recovered on the street almost immediately.

Then, according to those accounts, it was handed to a guard at the nearby Federal Reserve Bank. The South Tower collapsed shortly after that.

The Federal Reserve kept the note stored for years and then turned it over to the National September 11th Memorial & Museum, according to those accounts. The museum worked with the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to process the note.

It was that smudge of blood on the note -- Randy Scott's blood -- that enabled the medical examiner to use DNA technology to trace the note.

By the time the note had gone through all those processes, a decade had passed.

In August 2011, the medical examiner's office called Denise Scott, said it had something written and asked her to identify it.

She brought Ernst with her. "When we saw the letter, you can't mistake his handwriting," Ernst said. "So we knew right away that ... he went down fighting as hard as he could."

"It was hard to hold back your tears," said Ernst, who like the Scott family lives in Stamford. "It's another part of him that just comes back."

Ernst and Denise Scott decided it was best not to tell Denise's daughters right away.

"I think we both realized that it's a really tough awakening, to realize that your father didn't die instantly, and might have really suffered or might have had a harder time than we thought," Ernst said.

Only "fragments" of Randy Scott's body were recovered, according to Ernst.

Denise Scott waited until this year, when the youngest daughter, Alexandra, was out of college, to talk about the note.

"My youngest, when I told them about the note, said, 'Oh, Daddy must have been so scared," Denise Scott said. "And I said 'No, your father was hopeful.' "

Ernst said he believes the physical characteristics of the writing tell Randy Scott's story in those final moments.

"He wasn't trembling. He wasn't nervous. It just looked like, 'This is what I gotta do. I gotta get some help to these 12 people.' "

Mohammed Hamdani's name isn't among the first responders that are on the 9/11 memorial. But on that day, the 23-year-old certified EMT skipped his job at a university research lab to rushed to the World Trade Center.

Today's fifth-graders were not even born on that day. For them, September 11 is history -- and often, a topic in their history class. And as of last fall, 21 states specifically mentioned 9/11 in their social studies standards.